How To Become A Grandmaster?

If you expected a list of steps here to become a GM, then clearly you will be disappointed. There is not and never has been a shortcut to becoming a GM.

Here is a reminder on what I wrote about the 1st step to being a GM.

You just need to ask yourself this:

1. Do I want to become a GM?
2. How badly do I want it?
We want many things in life. We want to have friends, we want to have fun, we want to watch TV, we want a good family, we want a nice car, we want a nice house, we want a comfortable job, we want we want.

But all we have is 24 hours a day. Everyone has that same amount of time per day. With so many things that we want, how do you expect to divide that 24 hours? What do you want to achieve in life? That is the fundamental question.

Deep down inside, if you know that you do not want to become a GM, then you should not even try because a half-hearted attempt will only waste your time.

Becoming world-class in anything requires a lot of hard work. No doubt you cannot do it alone, but if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen. Whatever it takes. You need to make sacrifices. Watch less TV. Spend less on the things you don't need. Channel more resources to your chess development. More time, more money etc. You may even have to take time off your occupation. I have talked about Praveen Thipsay before. More recently, even Goh Weiming is taking time off his work to focus on getting his GM. Being a married man, this kind of decision must surely have not come easy.

The main ingredient towards becoming a GM is most definitely desire. You will never achieve it if you do not want it badly enough. It is not going to fall on your lap. You can sit around and wait for your "coach" to teach you enough things to become a GM. You can sit around and wait for some company or other to sponsor your efforts. As we have seen, sponsors and coaches and money are not what makes a GM. Ask Mas to give you an honest answer. Why did he not become a GM? He had all the backing in the world. More than many of us have ever had.

Stop blaming the environment. Look at yourself. Do you really want to become a Grandmaster?

He Who Must Have the Last Word

He Who Must Have the Last Word must think he was very clever in linking watchdogs to rabid. For starters, it has been repeated for about 2,543 times that no emotions have been involved since I started this blog. I write with proof, and logical argument. On many occassions, I even painstakingly collect data to prove my point. Unlike He Who Must Have the Last Word's blog, there is no data. Plain rhetoric with no proof of argument, and only stops short of guaranteeing that the idea would work. 

Personally, I resent such statements as:

"If you compare the seniors to their peers then we can see that the gap is very large. I do not see the possibility of them ever closing that gap. In fact the gap is widening further as time go by. The window of opportunity is now closed for them. So lets move on."

No doubt the gap is widening. It is not and has never been the fact that the seniors lack the ability or drive to perform. As He Who Must Have the Last Word has mentioned before, ANYONE can find the drive and motivation within them. The only problem I see is that the senior players have grown lethargic of the system. Many of these people have fought the system and some have come close to succeeding. So much time and effort have been spent to fight this unmeritocratic system. So little time have been spent on chess. By the time they realize it, their best years are behind them. Or are they?

Let me just share an example with you. For those of you who were more active back in the day, you would remember GM Praveen Thipsay. When I met him in 1993, he was only an IM. Back then, he was already aged 34. Some would even consider him being past his prime. When he was a junior, he was just as promising as any other junior. In 1993, India only had 2 GMs. The first is of course Anand (obtained in 1987), and the second, Dibyendu Barua (obtained in 1991).

Against all odds, Praveen Thipsay took a sabbatical from his job and focused entirely on chess. He subsequently achieved his third GM norm at the end of 1997 to become India's third Grandmaster at the relatively ripe age of 38. By the way, he also did not have the kind of sponsorship that was offered to certain parties as if it was their birth right.

So, to hear someone say that the window of opportunity has closed on "senior" players is most definitely jumping the gun. What we need is a system that promotes success and recognizes effort and talent. There is no need to divide chess players by age. If I could, I would even venture to divide chess players by "hardworking" and "lazy". But that is another story for another day.

On another note, connecting too many dots too fast has always been the habit of He Who Must Have the Last Word. Labelling other people is also one of his favorite past times. Name calling is also second nature to him. First, it is poisonous snakes. Then, vigilantes. I can't wait for what's next.

Everyone hates to be made to look weak. Everyone hates to have their mistakes pointed out to them. Yes, I do that a lot. But is that THE ONLY thing I do just like He Who Must Have the Last Word claims? I would care to venture that without my sharing of IM Goh Weiming's articles, he would not even know it existed. Do I not praise Weiming's work and efforts?

Does He Who Must Have the Last Word know of my working efforts with other juniors in the chess arena? It is because of that, I MUST remain anonymous. It is still too early to expose the juniors I work with to the dirty politics that exists in chess.

Calling out mistakes is not what the Chess Ninja is about. It is about calling a spade, a spade. Some people, for some strange reason, cannot see a spade for what it really is. That is why I need to show them with brutal honesty. It has never EVER been emotional for me. Some people just take it too personally when they can't stand the heat. If you can't take the heat, don't play with fire. It has never ever been personal for me either. It is when He Who Must Have the Last Word begins his name-calling to dismiss other people's ideas that I would have to defend myself. If He Who Must Have the Last Word can show some respect for others without calling them names, maybe more people would actually listen to him.